Ancient Greeks aligned temples to the sun
After centuries of finding evidence for it, the astrotheology of the ancients is so self-evident to me that it is difficult to believe there is even a debate anymore. As I show in my book Suns of God, the fact that the ancient Greeks were likewise involved in the worship of the sun and other aspects of nature has been known since antiquity, with not only the prominence of the Greek versions of the God Sun, Apollo and Helios, but with numerous other solar manifestations and aspects within the Greek pantheon. The other solar deities include the god Dionysus, as highlighted by the writers Macrobius (4th cent. AD/CE) and Nonnus (5th cent. AD/CE, for example.
In his analysis of ancient deities as solar in nature, Macrobius quotes mysterious Orphic verses:
The sun, which men also call by name Dionysus
One Zeus, one Hades, one Sun, one Dionysus
It is therefore unsurprising that Greek temples are being found to have been built facing the rising sun. Of course, that fact does not make this news any less exciting, as yet more evidence of our fascinating but forgotten past!
Ancient Greeks may have been inclined towards worshipping the Sun
London, November 23 (ANI): A new research has indicated that the ancient Greeks deliberately built their temples to face the rising Sun, which suggests that they were inclined towards the worship of the sun.
According to a report in the Times, an investigation into temples built by Greek colonists in Sicily has found strong evidence that they were aligned to the East.
The findings, by Alun Salt, of the University of Leicester, UK, suggest that Ancient Greek religion may have included ritual elements inspired by astronomy….
Although it has long been known that most of these shrines face east, some academics have questioned whether this alignment reflected a deliberate plan.
Critics of astronomical theories have pointed out that some temples face north, south or west, and argue that their orientation was not important to the Greeks.
Dr Salt’s research, however, indicates that the predominant east-west alignment is almost impossible to explain by chance, and probably followed a religious convention founded on astronomy….
In the study, Dr Salt found that 40 of 41 temples that he analysed in Sicily were oriented towards the eastern horizon….
“There is also evidence that astronomy was important to the relgious calendar, and there was probably a practical purpose too. A temple that faces the sunrise would be well-lit at dawn, so the priest would not be working in the shadows,” he added. (ANI)
For more on the ancient Greek calendar, be sure to see my 2010 Astrotheology Calendar.
25 thoughts on “Ancient Greeks aligned temples to the sun”
Comments are closed.
Humm, lets see now, where have I heard this before…???
“All the gods of the Greek and Roman mythology represent the attributes of the one supreme divine power – the SUN.”
– Macrobius Roman scholar around 400ce
“Suns of God” 67-68
“Now when the ancient Egyptians, awestruck and wondering, turned their eyes to the heavens, they concluded that two gods, the sun and the moon, were primeval and eternal; and they called the former Osiris, the latter Isis…”
– Diodorus Siculus, Greek Historian (90-21 BCE)
“Suns of God” 89
Early Church Father Tertullian (160-220 C.E.), an “ex-Pagan” and Presbyter of Carthage…
“ironically admits the true origins of the Christ story and of all other such godmen by stating in refutation of his critics, “You say we worship the sun; so do you.”
(paraphrase from the Catholic Encyclopedia)
– “Christ Conspiracy” 158
Reader
Why do the so called historians keep trying to insert the so called
Greeks and Romans as the keepers of Astro-monical information.
Egypt was all ready old when they arrived in africa. it would have been inpossible for these neonphiles to have info. that took thousands of yrs too develop. The Ancient Africans were the
teachers of this knowledge! Please read :Ancient Egypt Light Of
The World By Churchward.
vedic greece
Radha Krishna worship by any other name.
http://www.salagram.net/BhaktiAnandaGoswami-RK2.html
A critic might counter that Christian churches have always been traditionally built facing East, yet the official Christian church line is not one of sun-worship…
And then we could counter with the evidence showing Jesus Christ to be a Judaized sun god.
[img]http://stellarhousepublishing.com/jesusassunmed.jpg[/img] ([url]http://stellarhousepublishing.com/jesusasthesun.html[/url])
See my other books as well:
The Christ Conspiracy ([url]http://truthbeknown.com/christ.htm[/url])
Suns of God: Krishna, Buddha and Christ Unveiled ([url]http://truthbeknown.com/sunsofgod.htm[/url])
Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection ([url]http://stellarhousepublishing.com/christinegypt.html[/url])
Yes but the people who were responsible for the building of the churches weren’t aware of all that. Did the people who built the churches in say, mediaeval England, ever question why they were aligning them to the east? Presumably they just did it because it was “traditional”. Or are we supposed to think that on some unconscious level they knew they were worshipping the sun?
Perhaps the manual laborers who actually laid the bricks and stones weren’t aware of these facts in the case of Christianity, but, as was the case in the ancient world in general, the architects and priests – often one in the same – certainly [i]were [/i]aware of this longstanding and vitally important symbolism.
Modern Greeks are Christian turks, what is known today as “Greece” was liberated by Albanians.
For more on this visit arberiaonline.com
Zeus was Pelasgian and not “”””””Greek”””””
The name survives today in Albanian as Zot/Zojs/ whom the Albanians use it to say “GOD”.
So how about telling us who these modern “””””””Greeks””””””” are first?
“The True History of mankind will be written, only when in it’s writings will participate the Albanians”
-Maximilian Lambertz-
http://www.pare-dose.net/blog/?p=2827 for your information…
Interesting
In a dream, someone told me that pazuzu, or pazuzeus was the same entity as zeus. Although there is no historical connection between the two, there do seem to be some similarities..
Why dod Homer write..
..and the gods came across the Milky Way in their chariots for conferences on Mt. Olympus. If the God were myths, who then built the Parthenon? Examine there the fine, smooth carvings in the marble, done thousands of years ago. What tech even today could carve marble with such precision. And what about the massive very ancient blocks on the Parthenon floor. How were these 100 tonners raised up the hill into oposition let alone brought from distant quarries?
The answers lie in http://www.theyfly.com, and not from pretending that there has been a linear evolution in mankind, and from that, trying to create more myths.
light
well ..perhaps the light was utilized,,,first and the rest thought simply a giid way to follow….
Kitchen window
I always thought it was nice to see the sun from the kitchen window in the morning.
“Modern Greeks are Christian turks, what is known today as “Greece” was liberated by Albanians. “
!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I ain’t greek but this is another nationalist albanian statement like the ones from macedonian slavs.
Sun = warmth and light
Greek architects would have wanted to gain maximum light and warmth and could best do that by aligning temples and other buildings to the sun.
As I look out my upstairs window I can see hundreds of TV satellite dishes all aimed a the same point in the sky — while this COULD be interpreted as some kind of alien intervention, personally, I prefer to believe it is just the desire of the TV watchers to obtain the optimum signal strength.
Likewise, Greek architects desiring the optimum solar benefits wouid have just naturally aligned their structures to the sun — without alien intervention.
Could it be that temples (which were made of stone) were built facing the sun so that the temples would stay dry and so moss would not grow on the stone…perhaps?
Jives with Vedic traditions
The US Peace Government has explained why this is done in scientific terms. Buildings facing any direction other than East and maybe North are bad on the health of their occupants. East-facing buildings promote health. There are studies to back this up.
Facing East
All of the churches in Greece have their entrances facing West, and the Altars facing due East. It can’t be for facing Jerusalem, because from Greece, Jerusalem is almost due Southeast. Maybe Constantine did it.
re:
[quote name=”Acharya S”]And then we could counter with the evidence showing Jesus Christ to be a Judaized sun god.[/quote]
Considering that Jesus was a Jew, your point is pretty moot.
Human race is degrading, not improving
According to the Bible, people are getting dumber.
They are not improving but degrading.
6000 years ago, when the world was created, the human race was bigger, smarter, stronger and more capable of building things like the Parthenon and the Giza pyramid.
Spare your racist comments for your country of origin 🙁 🙁 🙁
Athens
Considering that Athens comes from the word Atene/Aten/Aton, perhaps there is a link here going back to Akhen-aton who indeed worshipped the sun..
More academicans with too much time and too little
“A new research has indicated that the ancient Greeks deliberately built their temples to face the rising Sun, which suggests that they were inclined towards the worship of the sun.”
I oriented my house to face the nearby mountains. So did most of my neighbors. We don’t by ANY means worship those mountains, we just enjoy the view.
The mountains are east hence our houses face the sunrise. We don’t worship the sun, either. However, on a cold morning the houses warmup thanks to the sun’s rays coming through the picture windows.
The morning sunlight illuminates the interiors nicely, so we don’t need to use electric lights–which, I seem to recall, the ancients didn’t have.
Occam’s razor: The simplest explanations are likely the correct ones. People will do the things they feel are the most beneficial to them. The gods and the resulting mythology will snap into line in tune with those benefits.
[quote]Occam’s razor: The simplest explanations are likely the correct ones.[/quote]
Yes, and knowing the massive body of evidence concerning the widespread ancient propensity towards solar mythology, astrotheology and sun worship, the simplest explanation is that temples – [i]house of [/i][i]worship[/i], not just anyone’s home – were oriented towards the sun because the builders were in significant part [i]sun worshippers[/i].
My partner and I absolutely love your blog and
find mazny of your post’s to be just what I’m looking for.
can you offer guest writers to write content for yourself?
I wouldn’t mind publishing a post or elaborating onn a
number of the subjects you write related to here.
Again, awesome website!